As much as I was trying to be quiet, I couldn’t help the small groan that ripped from my throat at the sight—and the feeling—of her sucking me off in that shower. Her eyes were wide and eager, so big as she used her mouth on me. I tangled my hands in her wet, silky hair to guide her head on my cock. God, she was taking me so deep. I felt the tip hitting the back of her throat with every thrust.
She slid her hands up her slick torso and cupped her wet, full breasts with them. At first, she just held them there for a moment, not moving except for the rhythm of her mouth. Then, she started playing with her own nipples, swirling her fingertips around them and rolling them between her thumb and forefinger, tweaking them to even greater hardness.
Watching her caress her nipples as she sucked my cock was hot enough. Watching those nipples get harder and more pronounced was even hotter. But the hottest thing of all was watching the arousal that flooded those wide, eager eyes as she used her fingers to give herself pleasure—all the while, using her mouth to give it to me.
As she brought me closer and closer to orgasm, the sensations rushed through my body. It was like a dream, only better than any dream I’d ever had. No dream had ever sucked my cock the way her sure mouth was, so no dream could ever compare to what was happening right now.
Just as I was about to reach the point of no return, I grabbed her firmly by the shoulders and pushed her back. She looked surprised, but I quickly explained, “I’m about to come. I don’t want to. I want to fuck you.”
Chapter 27
Evelyn
GOD, JUST WHEN I had resigned myself to the fact that I was going to have to settle for taking care of myself this weekend when it came to sexy times, Nick had appeared in my shower. Apparently the arrival of everyone else had not dampened his desire for me as much as he’d hoped it would. If anything, his desire felt more intense.
Wow, what a hot thought—he wanted me that much. I turned him on so much that even reason and logic meant nothing when compared to how much he needed to fuck me.
He spun me around, my feet slick on the shower floor. He put a hand on my back and angled me forward, his other hand firm on my hip, holding me upright. I pressed my palms up against the hot, wet tile and groaned in anticipation of him taking me from behind—something we hadn’t tried yet. I had no idea how I was gonna stay upright in the slippery fiberglass enclosure, but I didn’t spend too much time worrying about it—I trusted him to take good care of me.
I turned my head to look back at him. “Condom,” I gasped. It was a deal breaker. But I needn’t have worried. He’d already slid the shower door halfway back and was reaching his hand out to grab something from the counter. He drew his hand back in and the bright red condom wrapper was grasped between his fingers.
“Way ahead of you.” He grinned.
I sighed as I turned back around to face the wall. Those were the kind of moments that showed me I really could put myself in his hands without having to worry. He would take care of everything. He would take care of me.
He slammed himself into me with the force of a hurricane. Gale-force winds of emotion and sensation swirled through me as his cock pounded me.
He leaned forward and tweaked my nipples while he continued to pump in and out of me. Between all the places he was touching me in that moment—his legs pressed up against the back of mine, his dick inside me, rubbing against my inner walls with every stroke, his chest pressed against my back, his arm wrapped firmly around my waist and holding me up, his hands massaging my tits and playing with my nipples—I felt completely surrounded and enveloped by him. I felt as close to him in that moment as I had ever felt to another human being.
In fact, in a lot of ways, it didn’t even feel like we were two separate beings anymore. I would’ve been hard-pressed to say where my body ended and his began, or where my soul stopped and his started. In all the most important ways, we felt like one.
An orgasm started building deep inside my belly. I knew I couldn’t yell. The screams would wake everyone else in the house, and they’d come running to find out what was wrong—and what they’d find was a pair sopping wet, naked people scrambling to get towels wrapped around them.
Not good. I had to be quiet.
Just as I was about to cry out Nick covered my mouth and muffled the sounds ripping from me. I didn’t know if that was going to be good enough, but I was gonna have to make it be.
Nick’s muscles contracted. I felt it everywhere he was touching me—his abs against my back, his hips up against my ass, his legs pressed down the length of my legs. My entire body began to shake as my release built and his hand remained in place.
“Good girl. Come for me. Just like that.”
That was enough to send me rollicking right over that edge as he stiffened behind me, clenching as his own climax claimed him.
When I was just starting to float back down to reality, he stepped back from me. I turned around, this time fully expecting to hear him make some pragmatic pronouncement about how I shouldn’t say anything. We needed to keep this a secret. But, it seemed that Nick was good at nothing so much as defying my expectations. This time, when I expected him to be cold and practical, his eyes softened with tenderness toward me, and he drew me into his arms, stroking my hair.
“I wish I could stay. I wish I could stay with you all night long, fall asleep holding you, wake up kissing you. God, there’s nothing I want more.” The wistful sound in his voice grabbed at my heart. “But I can’t… We can’t…”
I loved him so much that I couldn’t stand to hear the pain in his voice, even if the pain he was feeling was most likely dwarfed by what was stabbing me at that moment. It didn’t matter—my first instinct was to comfort him.
I looked up into his face, forcing a smile onto mine. “Don’t worry,” I said, my voice low and comforting. “I’ll be fine. It’s okay. Tonight was amazing. Last night was amazing. But I know what this is and what this isn’t. Tomorrow we’ll wake up like nothing has ever happened. We’ll have a fun day, and everything will be great.”
I only wished that, as convincing as my words sounded on the surface, I had any real faith at all that they were true.
Chapter 28
Nick
“MORNING, NICK.”
I walked into the kitchen, deeply inhaling the smell of coffee and sizzling bacon in the air. “Morning, Lisa. Smells good.”
She glanced over at me from where she stood at the stove, a quick smile flashing on her face. “If you’re talking about the bacon, you’re going to have to wait. Breakfast will be ready in about fifteen minutes. If you’re talking about the coffee, you’re in luck. There’s a full pot in the coffeemaker.”
I pulled a mug out of the cabinet and poured the strong, brown liquid into it. I could almost taste it already as I carried it over to the kitchen table and sat down. This was the first time we’d had a minute alone since yesterday’s incident. I figured I’d let her take the lead on how to proceed—whether to act fake and keep up a façade like everything was normal, or to address it.
I was still pissed as hell, don’t get me wrong, but I also saw Brian’s point. If Lisa didn’t want to get into it and possibly ruin the rest of the weekend, I wouldn’t push the issue.
Well…not much, anyway.
“So, how are things?” Yeah, the flat tone of my voice was kinda provocative, but I wasn’t a damn saint.
She froze, the spatula in her hand hanging still in the air above the pan. Her shoulders and back were rigid, and she sighed deeply and closed her eyes. She stayed that way for several long seconds.
When she finally did open her eyes and start stirring the eggs, her body kept the same stiff stance. “So, this is the girl? The one?”
Shit. That was a question I hadn’t let myself answer yet. Within myself, sure, I knew Evelyn was it for me. She was my angel. She’d brought me back to life, but I hadn’t talked to her about it yet, and I didn’t feel like it was right to be discussing it with Lisa before I even discu
ssed it with her.
“What would be so wrong with that?”
Lisa turned, her eyes were shining with unshed tears. “She’s not…Jen,” she said simply, with a shrug.
“You’re right. She’s not. No one is.”
Lisa went back to the eggs. “It just seems wrong.”
“All you know about her is that she’s not Jen. What you don’t know is that she’s Evelyn. You don’t know all the things that make her special. How smart she is, how caring, how amazing with Olive…”
“Nick…I don’t even want to know those things. Don’t you get it? If I accept her, it’s like…”
“Accepting your sister’s never coming back?”
She rolled her eyes. “Thanks, Dr. Phil. I already know she’s not coming back.”
I let that sit for a moment in the silence that followed between us.
“I’m not so sure that you do.”
The tears that had shimmered in her eyes started to stream down her cheeks in two fat drops, and she wiped them away angrily with her free hand. “I do know it. I just don’t like it. Accepting this new girl, acting like her being here is perfectly fine and normal—that would make it seem like I think it’s okay that my sister’s gone. And it’ll never be okay. I’ll never let it be.”
Again, I thought silence was the best response. After a moment, she spoke again, and this time her voice was quiet. Defeated. “But, the last thing I want to do is hurt Olive. She doesn’t understand all this. So I won’t do or say anything more like last night.”
“Good.”
“And…I’ll even try to get to know her. Accept her. I get it. This isn’t her fault. This is my shit. I’ll deal with it.”
“That’s good, Lis.”
“Now can you get out of my hair so I can cry for a few minutes in private, for fuck’s sake?”
I smiled a little. There was the Lisa I knew. “Sure. Good talk.”
I headed for the stairs, but she called after me. “Bread.”
“What?”
“I forgot the bread for toast. Maybe you two could run into town for some. And maybe…you know…you could tell her I’m sorry.”
Now the smile was full force. That was a big step for her. “Will do.”
Chapter 29
Evelyn
BACK IN THE car with Nick again. Alone. I couldn’t help but compare it to the trip up to the cabin, where every tiny detail had sparkled like a diamond—every word he said, every subtle movement he made. It was all so significant because there was so much ambiguity.
God, had everything changed since then. There were so many things I knew and felt now that I simply hadn’t thirty-six hours ago. How our bodies fit together. How his strong hands felt on my naked flesh. What his demanding tongue felt like as it worked between my legs. What it meant to be fucked by him, to be claimed and owned, and to give myself over to that—and him—completely.
But, now there was a different kind of ambiguity between us, and it had to do with what our future was going to hold. There were so many different possibilities. Would we continue on like we had this weekend, sleeping together but keeping it a secret? Honestly, I didn’t see how that could work in the long run. Would we actually be together, try to make a go of things? My belly fluttered. That would be amazing, but it did come with its own set of complications.
The butterflies in my stomach froze and congealed into an ice block at the thought of the third possibility.
Nick could decide the complications were too intense, more than he wanted to deal with—more than he wanted to subject Olive to—and end things between us. Tears threatened at the very thought, and my heart felt like a meat cleaver had come down with a hard thunk, slicing it neatly in two.
Of course, if that happened, I would get through it somehow. I was strong enough to weather anything. My mama hadn’t raised a weakling… but…man, would it be terrible. The grief of losing not only Nick, but Olive as well…I couldn’t even think about. It made it too hard to breathe.
The main thing I had an issue with at the moment, though, was the uncertainty. I could figure out how to deal with anything, as long as I knew what I was dealing with. Of course, I could’ve just come out and asked Nick what his thoughts and plans were, but somehow that felt like it would shatter something fragile that existed between us in a precarious balance. I couldn’t bring myself to risk that. I just couldn’t.
Nick spoke, though, breaking the silence. “I talked to Lisa this morning. She feels bad about what she said last night. You know…about the suitcases.”
I let out a bark of laughter. I couldn’t help it. “I hope that’s what it was about. If there were worse things said I haven’t heard, I don’t want to know.”
He sent me a quick smile. “No. Nothing like that.”
I covered his hand with mine on the console. “It’s fine. I kind of figured there would be some bad feelings on her part when I found out you hadn’t told them I was coming. It must be hard to be in the same room with the woman who takes care of your sister’s kid, day in and day out, when it really should’ve been your sister doing that.”
Nick looked at me searchingly for as long as was safe before looking back at the road. “Damn. You’re perceptive. That totally flew over my head. I’m an idiot, I guess.”
I laughed lightly. “Not an idiot. Just…a guy.”
He squeezed my hand. “I’ve heard those are synonymous terms.”
I laughed. It wasn’t even so much because the comment was funny. It was more a way to express the giddiness of relief flooding my system. His sister-in-law hating me was one major obstacle down. Now, if only…
“Anyway, she knows that there is something going on between us. Apparently we weren’t as sly as we tried to be. She could sense it. Big time,” he said, as if reading my thoughts.
“And what did you tell her?” I congratulated myself on the neutral phrasing I’d landed on.
He glanced at me and grinned. “No matter what she was working through, she was going to have to get used to you being around. Because, Evelyn, if you want to be…I really want us to be together. And if you don’t want to be, well, then… hell, changing your mind is about to become my life’s mission.”
My hand flew over my mouth as I squealed in delight, like a little kid who’s just been handed a new puppy. The reasons for the uncontainable joy were the same in both cases—unfettered delight at how majorly fucking awesome our lives were about to become!
My eyes were glued to Nick’s face, so I never did see what it was in the road that made his eyes widen and his face tighten up. The car jerked to the right, and all I knew was that I caught a quick glimpse of that expression—just long enough to feel an oh, shit quickening of dread in my belly—and then the world was spinning upside down as our car careened down the mountainside.
Chapter 30
Nick
I HEARD A bird singing and felt cold wind rush over my face. Those were the first two sensations that entered my consciousness. For a moment, I floated in that netherworld between sleep and wakefulness, wondering why there was a bird in my bedroom, and why it was so damn cold.
As I fought my way up, inch by inch, from the swirling darkness, the reality of the situation dawned on me. It happened slowly, piece by piece, rather than all at once. First, I realized that I was sitting, not laying down in bed as I’d originally thought. Then, gradually, the knowledge that there had been a car accident came back to me. I saw the deer…felt the car spinning…
Evelyn…
God, where was she? The thought of her was what finally pried my eyes open. “Evelyn?” I croaked, struggling to crane my neck. I couldn’t see her. “Evelyn!” My voice came out clearer and louder now. When I pushed down with my elbows and hands on the seat behind me, I inched forward. My vision was clearing moment by moment along with my thinking. Evelyn was here somewhere—in the car? Or had she been thrown free? I had to find her!
With a herculean effort, I wrenched myself sideways so I cou
ld look at the passenger seat straight on.
Yes! There she is.
She’d been thrown to the far side of the car, her head slumped against the window, her face away from me. She was still in her seatbelt, thank God.
I frantically freed myself from my own seatbelt and scrambled across the center console, calling her name desperately. “Evelyn! God, Evelyn…are you all right? Please say you’re all right…”
I grasped her limp shoulders and pulled her forward, holding her to me. “Fuck, baby, please wake up. Please be okay.”
I drew back and took her chin in my hand, gently turning her face toward me. “Evelyn, can you hear me?” I pleaded. Panic screamed inside me, doing its best to get me to come undone. I couldn’t lose her. I just couldn’t. Not after I’d just gotten her.
The fear clawing at my gut was even worse in that moment than it would be for most people. For them, a comforting blanket of denial settles over the brain in moments of danger. It gives them a certainty that whatever they fear most won’t actually happen. It makes them think to themselves, surely the universe wouldn’t be that cruel.
I had first-hand knowledge that wasn’t the case. The cruelty and capriciousness of the universe was well-fucking-known to me, and I felt every moment of soul-crushing fear at the thought that I could lose Evelyn in an instant.
I didn’t think I could take it, having her ripped from me, seconds after hearing her shriek in delight at the idea of the two of us being together. Having one of the most joyful moments of my life instantly transform into the most horrific—fuck, I didn’t think I could survive it. I really didn’t.
And Olive…to lose two mothers before she even started kindergarten…no. I wasn’t going to think about that. I couldn’t let it distract me.
Meet Cute Page 11
